Are they reliable ?

some are.
some are not.
i would test fire any CETME before purchase.
or make them give you a 100% money back guarantee

ask these guys

http://www.gunboards.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=47

I have a Century Arms CETME that works fine. It has what looks like a new barrel, wood is nice also. I have read alot of horror stories on various boards about these rifles, guess I got lucky. I put a scope on mine, and I use the G3 magazines. They are a good value, if you get a good one.

Excellent Source

All your CETME questions answered.

MT

Quoted: ask these guys www.gunboards.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=47/]

mine worked fine after i had to send it back to CAI to fix the charging handle/tube.
shoots great, but very loud?  

I bought a Century mutilated CETME.  It broke the cast sear after less than 100 rounds while clearing a jam.  I sent it back to Century and to their credit the repaired it quickly and sent it back.  

In my opinion The CETME as originally built (in select fire) was a good rifle with good forged steel parts.  In order to bring these rifle into the USA market as semi-auto rifles Century had to make a ner receiver and fire control group (trigger, hammer, sear) that is semi-auto only.  Century uses cast parts to keep the cost down and these are failure prone as compared to the original forged parts.  Plus the other parts are well worn military parts in various condition.   The price is right and you are getting the same delayed roller action that H&K borrowed from CETME and made famous.  Don't flame me if I got the heritage wrong please!

The muzzle brake put on by Century is certainly loud!  I swapped mine out for one that looks like an AR15 flash hider but bigger, refinished the wood, and had the metal done up in OD Green by Arizona Expert Arms (AZEX), he has a picture of it on his website.  It looks cool and runs pretty good now.  But magazine changes are fustrating as the release button is way stiff.

Bottom line is there is no free lunch, if you want a 100% reliable, trust you life to it battle rifle there is no beating a good FAL from DSA or AZEX, but it will cost you $800 to $1,200.  A worked over M1A will cost even more.  Do like me and get one of each! (It is the arfcom way)

I have the centry black widow version and it is by far my fav rifle.  Make sure you get a new one though.  In the begining they didn't know how to make the lowers.  Now I know 4 people who have the new ones and all are completly satisfied.

The two I had were absolute garbage, courtesy of Century's trained monkeys they call "gunsmiths".

Would not fire more than 3 rounds without a FTF due to receivers being out of spec.

Good rifles turned into junk.

I had one that was spoty at best in the reliablity standpoint....I traced it back to headspacing...after replacing the locking rollers, I brought the headspace back to spec..it ran great...but it was a little inaccurate...

IMO...save your money and try for a better made HK clone like a JLD PTR-91-I have one of these and it's awesome....or a Ohio Rapid Fire G3 clone...

i had 2 good ones

Mine is excellent!  $300 well spent.  It took a couple hundred rounds to break the action in, and the mags have to be fitted with a hit from a dremmel.  It shot so well I picked up a b-square and scope for it.  

It "bumps" great; I have even ran a few COFs with it.  My brother and close friend have CETMEs also...same problem with mags and break in, but they will gobble up anything it is fed.  A friend picked up one of the new synthetic "black" CETMEs and they come with new barrels, and he is VERY pleased.  

Heck of a noisemaker on the end of the barrel

Our weapon dealer/gunsmith checks them out well before we see them and we dug through several to get the "one”, but I hear a lot of trashing them.  Now do not expect a HK91, and buy one at your own risk, but for the money and all the great shooting at the range I feel it was very worth it.

I would be shooting it more, but I built a FAL…new toy!

Mine isn't, but many are.  Choose carefully.  The CETME board at Gunboards.com is the place to go.